back to books

After a little 3D diversion, I am back on track trying to catch up on my book a month project I set myself at the start of the year. This will be my 10th book (which includes a couple of zines I posted recently). I started this book ages ago after a trip to Japan and discovered it when tidying up, with lots of work to do before being able to say "finished".
We had been in Japan during their autumn to see the changing colours of the leaves. We were not disappointed but the beauty was too much for me to try to use in my books. So "red leaves" is not about the leaves, but the experience of getting to see the leaves. 

The mixed media images use :
acrylic paint, gesso, wax pigment,stamped letters collage from maps, white ink, chinagraph pencil and linseed oil on Kraft paper. The very fine spider web like lines were made with a Japanese Pilot,  Hi-Tec-C 0.25 .

POST/CARD disruption

After making a special card for a friend, I just kept going. Just a couple of post cards while the bookmaking has a wee spell. It is a while since making some for a book "Yesterday" and even earlier as Travel = Postcards  about 4 years ago.
I think we might be entering a new Post-Card era now that the digital mode is taking over (for most but not all!) My poor disrupted post man or is it Post/man. 
This one is an infra red version of the much more colourful original. Amazing how the mood changes.

The collaged bits were arranged on an old photo of graffiti on a rusty wall. Might make a few more to post online if not in the mail, even though they have none of the feel and intimacy of holding one in you hand.

KART magazine of multiplicity

KART magazine is an assembling publication created to promote artistic and cultural diversity. 

issue 68

I have been contributing to KART for several years now and I'm always amazed at the contents of the little cardboard box that David sends us when he has enough artists' work to complete an edition. Here is a sample of some of the postcards I have made for this collaborative project.They are made using old photos I have taken stitched together with added collage elements and text.

queen of colonies

radical change

KART is an ongoing project with no deadlines, and work is accepted on a continuing basis. 

KART is produced in limited editions of 40, each box containing works by 15 artists. This is a bumper issue with 21 makers contributing! 

mysterious doctor

over 21

KART is published as a collaboration between Karingal Participate and Field Study International. You can preview images of KART as they are published on http://daviddellafiora.blogspot.com

David Dellafiora (curator)

on sale

impossibly happy

If you are interested please visit David Dellafiora's blog to see the other contributors that come from many countries including Italy, Norway, Spain, Ukraine, USA, and Germany as well as Australia.

Can you make up a story using one of the cards as a idea starter? I'd be happy to send you the original if I can find it or at least one of the edition.

suddenly life was more than french fries,gravy and girls...walk on wheels

Getting cooler in Brisbane and more time indoors. A sample from another small 20 page booklet just finished for the collection of small works at Micropress. 
Once again as in "The whole day through" I have used the perforated pianola paper from the roll I bought at an antigue shop. 

I hope these few are sufficiently intriguing to whet your curiosity. 
Let me know if you want to see more images and I will post some.

"sleeping with a princess"

"sleeping with a princess"

A spare couple of hours and a  new little collection of mixed media drawings, when I should have been working on more "serious" projects. 

"according to custom"

But I can't help myself. Like food for my head.

"like anger"

"moving shadows"

 These roughly A5 sized drawings use mainly a range of collage, linseed oil, wax, turmeric, china graph, graphite, ink and gesso. Some tasty ingredients that smell good too.

"peace for me"

"woman on the platform"

cover for loose drawings

Just a neat little cover to keep them together. You can see it was quite a restless night as usual. 
Enough for a little snack. Enjoy!

"the whole day through"

 

cover

It's always good to finish what you start even if it takes a while to get back on track. I started this little book when on holidays in Tasmania in 2015. I'd made a blank book using vintage pianola paper and an old 1900 Hobart Mercury newspaper I foundin an antique shop. Even though I made a start in Hobart, I was a long way from finishing the whole book.

let sleeping eggs lie

Each page is a new narrative based on found text from the old paper and personal experiences along the way. For example, the "sleeping eggs" page referred to the text but also a heritage chicken breeder we met in our B&B who was absolutely obsessive in his retirement plan to give the nation a new chicken he will call the Quombie. As you can see the responses are rather private but hopefully open ended so the images can be read in many other ways.

I like using this perforated paper because of its age and colour even though it is rather brittle. I often strengthen the paper by using gesso which also adds texture. I also used some fresh turmeric (the yellow bits) which now gives the book a lovely smell so I'll keep it in a sealed bag to help the smell last a while. It seemed appropriate and fits with the new foodie emphasis of Tasmanian tourism.
As the texts are quite small, it is a good idea to click on the image and enlarge it to be able to read the text. 
Enjoy!

rewards

When I travel I like to use the opportunity to start new work that I do in my hotels at night rather than trying to watch foreign television programs. I do this in small books of about 20 pages I make specially to fit in my backpack together with a very basic collection of drawing materials. 

"Re-Wards" is the latest of one of these books which I work back into once I get home.

The subject matter is often my new environment, the airport, the plane, people I meet anything that I find interesting or amusing.

On our last trip to Vietnam, I noticed quite a large group of ladies at the airport in Brisbane who all seemed to know each other and looked alike although not in a normal uniform but clothes that were of a similar type. They all appeared to be well "hoisted".
Later when we picked up more passengers in Sydney, more of these ladies joined the group and I assumed they were maybe going to a conference. My curiousity got the better of me and while in the queue for Customs I started a conversation with one of them.
They were all going to Vietnam as a reward for the excellent sales work they had done for a company and were off for an extended week-end of pampering and shopping at the company's expense. They were as high as kites in a cyclone.

The  company specialised in custom fitted lingerie which the ladies organised  to sell at parties. As the young lady told me, "think of us as ladies selling Tupperware for the Titties". 

Well.... had to start a new book that night.

Naturally, I did stray away from this particular subject but it was how the book started. I'll post a few more interesting drawings for you to ponder.

Who would have thought the process was so simple?

more "smudges" in Thin Red Line

A few more drawings in this tiny book to show how they develop and change in the process. I tend to get a bit carried away and they sometimes lose their directness and become a bit busy. I'm only about half way through and can't help wondering what the last drawings will be like. (I'm trying to use more or less the same materials in each drawing)

I've started to open up the pages with holes and folds but it's a bit hard to see so I'll take some photos instead of scanning to show the spaces better.

The three-dimensional changes as the pages open offer a new and exciting visual experience.

smudges in a new book - "thin red line"

Recently, a very good friend gave me a beautiful tiny book with thin paper and a red elastic tie that keeps it closed. It was blank. She has an identical book and will also work in it when she gets a chance. When we are finished we will share the results.
At the moment, I try to draw in this book every day till I hit a snag. The other day I took a few very simple little directions that completely changed my drawings in an exciting way and thought I'd share them with you while they're still hot on the page.....

We all have different strategies we use while we procrastinate with a difficult problem. I find it useful to give my mind time to think about different possible solutions but don't like doing "nothing" in the mean time. 

So one of my strategies is to draw in many little books at the same time and keep drawing till I encounter another problem and stop. I have these books all going together and don't finish any all in one attempt. I keep returning to each book and often find the problems solved in one book unlock some in another and I can keep going forward. (I often don't "finish" some books and find them years later and continue working in them, but not always) 

Exploring the properties of various media and trying new ones, also helps me find new areas to investigate. In these drawings I was interested in having some transparent/translucent areas and was using stand oil(any oil would do but some take a long time to dry or are smelly, which could be good?) to create this. 

This works well in the collage area with text on both sides as the text from both sides is visible at the one time. To enable me to draw on the oily paper, I used china graph pencils. Being waxy, they are easy to smudge and I started to do this deliberately with a paper stub as another way of mark making.

Instead of oil, I have just started to use Shellac which also make the paper a little transparent but id darker and easier to draw into. All of these materials have been used in these little drawings for different visual marks. I hope you find them interesting and will  explore them yourselves in your drawings.

Who would think that a scrap of paper torn from the page of an old book of poetry found in a garage in Tasmania, could be the starting point of a series of drawings that break new ground for an artist.